You turn south on Route 47 and soon you’re headed out of Woodstock. Once through Huntley, you’ll pick up the expressway and soon you’ll be miles from Woodstock in downtown Chicago. If you make the trip there or back to Woodstock during rush hour, you may find yourself in moving slowly in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Heavy traffic is aggravating and takes up your time. But, as long as your car is up to it, there’s no real problem. Your car is up to it, right?

Few things are as bothersome as having your car breakdown on the highway, miles from your home in Woodstock. The solution, a solution that is almost infallible, is to stay abreast of maintenance. For instance, have you checked your brakes, suspension, steering parts, tires, lights, charging system and more lately?

Another aspect of maintaining your car is to change the oil on schedule. Unless you go an incredibly long time without an oil change, or let your oil level fall dangerously low, that’s probably not something that will land you on the side of the road. However, if you drive your car from Woodstock to Chicago often, or any distance from Woodstock, if you don’t change the oil regularly, you’re going to cause additional wear on the engine.

True, it doesn’t really matter where you’re driving, though the type of driving can have an effect. The point is that the oil plays a vital role in the engine. If the oil isn’t at its peak ability, you’re probably harming the engine as you drive.

What does oil do in an engine? Consider the importance of these points:

• Oil serves as a lubricant between moving parts. Imagine a car running without oil. For that matter, imagine using your hands to rub two metal parts against each other. It won’t take long before you notice the parts are getting warm and scraping each other. That brings us to our next point.
• By reducing friction, oil also reduces heat. An engine without oil will quickly heat to a point where it seizes up. Not only does the oil reduce heat by reducing friction, it also carries the heat away from the moving parts.
• The oil in your engine also carries away particles of metal and dirt that could get between moving parts and cause additional damage. The oil carries them through the oil filter where they are removed from the oil so the oil can do that job all over again.

Car manufacturers recommend oil changes after a certain amount of miles or time period based on extensive testing to determine the optimal point when the oil should be changed. You’ll find that specification in the owner’s manual. You would do very well to follow that recommendation.